Why Not Digitial Distribution?

[AstralWanderer]

Originally Posted by Tim Brooks

To limit piracy, we would have to go to a system like Steam uses and I personally refuse to do this. I don't think that the person buying the game should be the one penalized for spending their hard earned money in support of our developers.

This, to me, is an outstanding (and sadly, all too rare) sentiment to express. Sir, I salute you. Now if I could just develop a greater liking for hardcore wargames, I might purchase a few more items - but sadly Dom3 and SEIV are likely to be it for the time being.

Now how about flexing that chequebook and buying up Atari, Electronic Arts, Ubisoft and Valve and then sacking all the DRM-fanboys they employ? Then we could see digital distribution done properly, where legitimate purchasers don't have to live in fear of their licences being revoked.

As for the thread topic, I would be in favour of digital distribution generally (no postage delay or risk of damage due to an overzealous courier) but I consider the online activation requirements of systems like Steam or Impulse totally unacceptable and I boycott all their products on principle.

For those who have purchased from such services (and who go as far as to advocate them here) I'd just like to ask:

• Have you considered what would happen if the company went bankrupt and the activation servers shut down?
• Have you thought about the likelihood of digital publishers (Valve/Steam especially here) seeking to milk their customers in future by imposing an annual or monthly fee to keep accounts active?
• Have you ever thought that, by supporting such DRM, you are encouraging publishers to tighten systems more, pushing customers into digital slavery?

The only way to do digital distribution without leaving buyers vulnerable to later exploitation is via "once only, ever" verification systems which essentially is how shareware works. You register when you pay, you receive a personal licence key (which then shows your name on the program title/opening screen - encouraging people to keep their keys private) and the only piracy check is a local blacklist of known warez keys that gets updated in subsequent patches. Pirates are denied the latest version without legitimate customers having to suffer.